Feds seek prison for man who won’t stop selling supplements

HELENA (AP) – Federal prosecutors are seeking jail time for a Montana man they say is still selling dietary supplements after a judge ordered him to stop because he was distributing unapproved and mislabeled drugs that promised to treat cancer and other diseases.

Toby McAdam of Livingston said Wednesday that he has stopped selling those supplements and that his company, Risingsun Health, is only offering one product, Lugol’s iodine.

He told The Associated Press that he has done everything Food and Drug Administration officials have required him to do, but he can’t afford to stop selling the iodine.

“It’s not a dietary supplement, it’s sold by chemical companies,” he said. “To me, by definition, it is not a supplement.”

The National Institutes of Health’s Office of Dietary Supplements lists iodine as a supplement. Lugol’s iodine is advertised by other sellers as aiding the thyroid and as a traditional medicine to treat various illnesses.

McAdam’s company advertises it as a vegetable wash and a natural water purifier and says “the body requires the element of iodine for essential body functions.” McAdam claimed that by not including medicinal or healing statements in his advertisements, he is following the court order to not sell supplements.

“I make no statement that makes medical claims that it can be used as a supplement. I changed all of that,” he said

McAdam agreed in 2010 to stop selling supplements, topical products with bloodroot or graviola plant extracts and any new drugs that had not been approved by the FDA.

Before then, he had regularly sold unapproved drugs that claimed to treat diseases such as cancer, anemia, asthma, attention deficit disorder, arthritis, epilepsy and intestinal parasites, prosecutors said.

Despite that agreement, he continued to sell products such as bloodroot that were intended to treat or prevent diseases, prosecutors said.

A judge issued a civil contempt order in 2013 demanding that he cease all manufacture and sales of products to be ingested by or applied topically to humans or animals, including drugs and dietary supplements.

Earlier this year, McAdam sold bloodroot capsules and Lugol’s iodine to undercover Food and Drug Administration employees through Amazon.com, and he has not shut down any of his websites, Department of Justice attorney David Sullivan said in a recent court filing.

Sullivan is asking a federal judge to initiate criminal contempt proceedings against McAdam, which could result in a prison term and a fine.

McAdam has unsuccessfully tried to nullify the 2010 agreement and the 2013 civil contempt order through lawsuits and an appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He is now petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to take up his case, and he asked U.S. District Judge Susan Watters to set aside the Justice Department’s request until the high court decides on his petition.

He said he has complied with the court’s requirements, and has hired an independent labeling expert to review his other products, but he has gotten no response from the FDA on whether he can sell them again.

“I have changed everything,” he said. “I’m down to one product, Lugol’s iodine, that’s it.”